Loud LLC
by FiveInTheMorn
Summary: The Loud siblings are now an extremely successful family, running one of the largest private companies in the country. It didn't happen overnight, though, and as they find out, running a business is not an easy task, and as their company grew, their familial bonds were tested. A tale of greed, pride, and lust for power in this Loud House biofic. (Rated T for language)
1. Prologue

**This is an idea that I _really _wanted to write about, the Loud siblings going into business together (serious question: why has no one done a story like this before?). For the last few years, I've shown a fascination with the ins and outs of what makes a successful and unsuccessful business and the people behind them. Different company collapses over the years, the financial crisis and recession, and the rise of tech giants and conglomerates have all contributed to this, and Aaron Sorkin's films, such as _The Social Network _and _Steve Jobs, _have helped me craft this idea.**

**This first chapter, though, is going to be much different than the rest of the story. This is going to establish how successful the siblings are in the present day, after the story itself happens. My reason for doing that? It's going to help frame the story to read like a biographical drama. I don't expect too many people to share my interest in learning about CEOs, so I understand if you find this first chapter boring. I promise that the rest of the story will read like a drama, and I appreciate everyone that will stick around and give this story a chance.**

**Disclaimer: The Loud House and characters belong to Nickelodeon.**

**Also, expect a rather sporadic update schedule, seeing as I have two other stories I'm currently working on. More importantly, though, is that I want to take my time with each chapter, as this idea is something that, I think, really needs to be thought through.  
**

* * *

_*Internet browser opens*_

…

_*Types in Wikipedia in search bar*  
_

…

_*Types in Loud LLC*_

…

_Listed in the general information bar on the right_

(In bold, black letters) Loud LLC.

(Picture shows the company's headquarters in downtown Detroit)

**Type:** Private

**Industry:** Conglomerate

**Founded:** July 12, 2035

**Founders:** Lori Loud

Lola Loud

Lisa Loud

**Headquarters:** Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

**Areas Served:** Worldwide

**Key people:** Lori Loud (Chairwoman and CEO)

Lola Loud (Executive VP)

Lisa Loud (CFO)

**Products:** Luxury Apparel, Luxury Accessories, Sports Apparel, Sports Equipment, Electric Guitars, Keyboards, Amplifiers, Music Software, Medical Equipment, Research and Development

**Revenue: **$64 billion (2042)

**Owners: **The Loud Family (95%)

The Vanguard Group (3%)

Ally Financial (2%)

**Subsidiaries: **Leni by Lola, Tough Love, Loud n' Proud Instruments, Loud Design, Nobel Labs

…

**Loud LLC** is an American multinational corporation based in Detroit, Michigan. Its subsidiaries include Leni by Lola, Tough Love, Loud n' Proud Instruments, Nobel Labs, and Loud Designs, which are involved in luxury goods and apparel, sports apparel, musical instruments, medical equipment and research, and product graphics respectively. The company has employees in 40 different countries and serves customers worldwide, though most of their sales come from within the United States.

In 2040, the company produced an annual profit of $64 billion, making it the largest privately held company in the state of Michigan. If it were a publicly held company, it would rank 50th on the list of Fortune 500 companies.

The company traces its origins to the now-defunct Loud Merchandise, also founded by the Loud siblings, which started after one of the siblings, Lincoln Loud, submitted a design on the online T-shirt website T-springs. The success of the design convinced the several of the sisters to start Loud Merchandise to expand the products and design offerings. All of the siblings eventually left, and after founding their own companies, they restructured all of them into becoming subsidiaries of a new company started by sisters Lori, Lola, and Lisa, the original executives of Loud Merchandise.

Today, the company is one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States, with consistently rising revenues and an ever-expanding product list. The siblings have stated that the company was created to give themselves sole autonomy of day-to-day operations and product decisions, a desire that stemmed from their own failures while still running and working at Loud Merchandise.

* * *

_*Types in Lori Loud*_

…

**Lori Loud**

(Picture shows Lori at a conference, speaking to an audience)

**Born: **Lori Marie Loud

April 22, 2000 (age 42)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Alma mater: **Fairway University

**Residence: **Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

**Occupation: **Entrepreneur

**Years Active: **2030-present

**Known for: **Co-founding and leading Loud LLC, Loud Merchandise

**Net Worth: **US $10.4 billion (June 2042)

**Spouse: **Bobby Santiago Jr. (m. 2023)

**Children: **4

**Relatives: **The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

_*Types in Lincoln Loud*_

_…_

**Lincoln Loud**

(Picture shows Lincoln at the same event as Lori)

**Born: **Lincoln Loud

March 14, 2006 (age 36)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Alma mater: **University of Cincinnati

**Residence: **Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

**Occupation: **Graphic Designer;

Entrepreneur

**Years active: **2030-present

**Known for: **Co-founding Loud Merchandise;

Founding Loud Design;

CEO and lead designer of Loud Designs

**Net Worth: **US $10.8 billion (June 2042)

**Spouse: **Jordan Rosato (m. 2031)

**Children: **3

**Relatives: **The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

_*Types in Lola Loud*_

…

**Lola Loud**

(Picture shows Lola at a different press conference)

**Born: **Lola Loud

May 24, 2011 (age 31)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Alma mater: **Columbia University

**Residence: **Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

**Occupation: **Entrepreneur;

Luxury goods designer

**Years active: **2030-present

**Known for: **Co-founding Loud Merchandise, Leni by Lola, Loud LLC;

Executive VP of Loud LLC;

CEO of Leni by Lola

**Net Worth: **US $9.8 billion (June 2042)

**Children: **1

**Relatives: **The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

*****_Types in Luna Loud*_

_..._

**Luna Loud**

(Picture shoes Luna playing at a concert)

**Born: **Luna Loud

March 28, 2002 (age 40)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Residence: **Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

**Occupation: **Singer – Songwriter – Guitarist –

Entrepreneur

**Years active: **2017-present

**Known for: **singer, songwriter, and guitarist of Flaming Lake;

Co-founder of Loud Merchandise, Loud LLC;

Founder and CEO of Loud n' Proud Instruments

**Net Worth: **$4.3 billion (June 2042)

**Relatives:** The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

_*Types in Lisa Loud*_

…

**Lisa Loud**

(Picture of Lisa Loud giving speaking at Oxford)

**Born: **Lisa Loud

March 2, 2013 (age 29)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Alma mater: **The University of Oxford

**Residence: **Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

**Occupation: **Research and Development;

Financial Management;

Philanthropist

**Years active: **2017-present

**Known for: **World's youngest Nobel Laurette;

Co-founding Loud Merchandise, Nobel Labs;

CFO of Loud LLC;

CEO of Nobel Labs

**Net Worth: **US $5.3 billion (June 2042)

**Relatives:** The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

_*Types in Lynn Loud, Jr._

...

**Lynn Loud, Jr.**

(Picture shows Lynn celebrating a track win)

**Born: **Lynn L. Loud, Jr.

April 4, 2004 (age 38)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Alma mater: **Central Michigan University

**Residence: **Mount Pleasant, Michigan, U.S.

**Occupation:** Retired Olympic Athlete;

Entrepreneur

**Years active: **2021-2039

**Known for: **Olympic bronze medalist;

Co-founding Loud Merchandise, Tough Love;

Former CEO of Tough Love

**Net Worth: **US $3.4 billion (June 2042)

**Relatives:** The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

*_Types Leni Loud*_

_..._

**Leni Loud**

(Picture shows Leni at a fashion conference)

**Born: **Leni L. Loud

April 18, 2001 (age 41)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Residence: **Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

**Occupation:** Fashion designer;

Luxury goods designer

**Years active: **2021-present

**Known for:** Co-founding Loud Merchandise, Leni by Lola;

Lead designer for Leni by Lola

**Net Worth:** US $830 million (June 2042)

**Children: **2

**Relatives: **The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

*_Types Lucy Loud*_

_..._

**Lucy Loud**

**Born: **Lucy L. Loud

April 13, 2009 (age 33)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Residence: **Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

**Occupation: **Graphic designer;

Writer

**Years active: **2030-present

**Known for: **Co-founding Loud Merchandise;

Authoring _Bloody Ink: The Ugly History of Loud Merchandise_

**Net Worth:** US $330 million (June 2042)

**Relatives: **The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

_*Types Lana Loud_

**Lana Loud**

**Born: **Lana L. Loud

May 24, 2011 (age 31)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Residence: **Jackson, New Jersey

**Occupation: **Clothing Entrepreneur (formerly)

**Years active: **2030-2039

**Known for: **Co-founding Loud Merchandise, Tough Love

**Net worth:** US $280 million

**Relatives: **The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

*_Types in Luan Loud_

**Luan Loud  
**

(Picture shows Luan smiling backstage after one of her specials)

**Born: **Luan L. Loud

May 2, 2003 (age 39)

Royal Woods, Michigan, U.S.

**Residence: **Los Angeles, California, U.S.

**Occupation: **Graphic designer (formerly);

Comedian

**Years active: **2017-present

**Known for: **Founding Funny Business;

Co-founding Loud Merchandise

**Net worth: **US $730 million (June 2042)

**Children: **2 (from different relationships)

**Relatives: **The Loud family (siblings)

* * *

**Yes, this was intentional. I want to establish their success right off the bat, as I want this story to read like a biographical drama (or biofic, as I'm calling it) rather than a typical drama. A such, instead of asking "Will the siblings succeed?", this story asks "How did the siblings succeed?".**

**And two quick things I want to mention. 1) If you see a first name you recognize from the show, it is, indeed, that character. Since a lot of the side characters don't have last names, I just made some up for them. 2)Lily not getting her own chart is intentional. When the story starts off proper, she's only going to be a freshman in high school, so it wouldn't make sense giving her duties while she still has to deal with classwork.**

**Finally, I know there will be a lot of questions considering how far into the future I wrote this and the information I gave for each sibling, and I just want to say that all questions should be answered as the story progresses. Remember, this is a biofic, and in order for a biography to exist, a person has to already go through the events that are being written about.**

**Thank you all for reading. Stay tuned for the next chapter when the story begins proper.**


	2. Accidental Success

**I'm not surprised by the slow traffic this story got, easily the least amount of the three stories I've published. That's alright, though. I doubt business is something a lot of people take great interest in, or at least, the interest I have, so the premise alone isn't something that most people would be interested in. That said, I still see this story as having huge amounts of potential. I know economics and business aren't topics that everyone has a fascination with, but I do, so no matter what the traffic is, I'm still going to put a lot of effort into making this story a great one. Already, this is the story I've done the most research for.**

**Now then, this chapter is the real start of the story. What catalyzed the start of the Louds going into business? What started their path to becoming rich? Let's find out.**

**I do want to mention that, though, that, despite the years this story takes place in (this chapter takes place in the year 2030), this is not a sci-fi story. I'll make nods that with mentions of things that could potentially exist in the future, but I'm not going to draw attention to that. The focus of this story is the business and how it affects the family's relationship with each other.**

**Disclaimer: The Loud House and characters belong to Nickelodeon.**

* * *

Lincoln was wired in, completely content to just let his half-eaten chicken sandwich and fries sit at the table, only taking occasional bites. His focus wasn't on eating, it was perfecting how the sky looked. He probably spent more time contemplating how many stars he wanted to include than he did on any other part of the picture. He settled on five stars. After that, his focus turned to the person staring up at them, the bottom half of his face completely covered by the face shield he had on. Lincoln knew the man had to wear a jacket, but should it be leather, a trench coat, or something else? Ah, screw it. He was going to let the virtual pen decide and just started drawing, though that didn't stop his rational side from kicking in and reminding him that, since this was supposed to be a picture of a ninja, it might be a good idea for the jacket to have a hood.

"Yo. Linc!"

"Huh?"

"Are you at all paying attention to anything going on around you?"

"Nope. Only what I'm drawing."

"What is it?"

"A bit of a modern, American take on a ninja."

"And what does said picture look like?"

"This." He turned the tablet around to let his friends/colleagues see the picture. The picture had the aforementioned night sky and ninja, crouched down on top of a random skyscraper in New York like he was ready to jump off at any second. It was a two-toned picture, white on black, and it was encased in a circular design, like the picture was a symbol for something. This being a Lincoln Loud original, the detail was fantastic, something his colleagues noticed and responded with varying ways of saying 'Heck Yes!'

"Is this for a commission?"

"No. This is for the workshop on Friday."

This caused a few people (but not all of them) to either laugh or shake their heads. "You're really going to that?"

"Yeah."

"Why? All they're doing is putting ink on a shirt."

"You say it's putting ink on a shirt. I say it's putting ink on a shirt and it's going to look amazing. Seriously, just picture this image on a shirt. Now, that is a shirt that's worth putting on, if you ask me."

"You sound like a middle schooler."

"Listen, how about I just finish this drawing and you guys can laugh when I actually get the shirt and it comes out as a botch job?"

"Whatever." Lincoln got back to his drawing while the rest of his table continued their talking. He was content to just sit there and perfect this drawing. When he was speaking with his friends, he was only half-right. He was trying to come up with a really good drawing that was worth wearing ever since his company announced the workshop. He had a week to think of something and he could never feel like he was fully satisfied with whatever he drew. Then this picture came along, and it just stuck. It just flowed out of him so well that he was surprised it hadn't come to him sooner. This just felt so natural and it was damn good on top of it. He was also happy he could use this time to draw it, since he had a fairly weak inspirational memory and had to put down ideas the moment he got them. In this case, it was during his lunchbreak in an outdoor eating area to the office he worked at.

Plus, it was a really nice day to spend some time outside. The Chicago River and Lake Michigan were beautiful, and there was a nice breeze in the air. It was days like these that made him happy he made the choice to move to Chicago after he graduated from college. Of course, it was also nice that the company he worked for would gladly pay him for his services, seeing as there was a bit of a competition going on between a few businesses who caught wind of Lincoln's talents as an artist and would happily pay him well to work for them, or at least, as well as a graphic designer can get paid, which wasn't the most in the world. He didn't mind, though. He was content to just be doing something he enjoyed. Plus, growing up in such a big family on a small budget, he learned how to be good with money.

After the break ended, he didn't have time to work on it until his workday was over, at which point, he hopped into his car and headed back to his apartment he shared with a couple friends from college who also moved to Chicago. He made himself some leftovers for dinner, and while he would've liked to work on finishing up his sketch, he first had to call up his girlfriend. He went to his room, put some headphones on, and opened up Skype to start a call, waiting for her to respond.

"Hey Linc."

"Hey Jordan. I take it you're done with practice today?"

"Thankfully. Coach P. practically had us grind out the same routine at nauseum until the day ended." _*sigh* _"You have no idea how happy I am to be home right now."

"Well, welcome to the world of stage performance, I guess."

"I'd like to see you try."

"I would, but I already know I'd suck, so there's really no point in me trying."

"Exactly, so I don't want to hear any lip coming from you." It may sound like they weren't having the healthiest conversation, but they were actually having fun with it.

"I think you already told me but remind me again what the performance is."

"Don Quixote."

"Yeah, that's definitely a ballet I'd assume your coach doesn't want you guys to botch."

"Look, I know it's a very celebrated story, but my god, could we _please _have a little room to breathe?"

"You're a graduate of Butler and a student at Joffrey. You don't get to complain."

"And yet, I imagine the art graduate from Cincinnati has days where he wished something would fall on his head and end him."

"Hey, I never said I wasn't a hypocrite."

"I know. We both are. It's why we work so well together."

"I'm not entirely sure about that, but I guess it's possible."

After a short silence, she asked "So, what are your plans for the rest of the night?"

"Finishing up a drawing of a T-shirt design. My company has a thing going on on Friday where we can submit a design and they'll order it in for us from one of those local print shops. It's part of a workshop they got set up for us."

"That sounds awesome. Can I see what you have so far?" He pulled out his tablet and showed her the unfinished drawing, a white-colored drawing on a black backdrop that, for Lincoln, seemed fairly simple to make. Still, he was putting a lot of care into making it look good, so that explains why he wasn't done yet."

"Looks great, Linc, though it seems fairly simple for you."

"Well, it's getting printed. I don't want the people doing it to think I have it out for them, but I do want the design to look epic."

"Just don't push yourself too far with this. Remember, it's just a shirt." She remembered one time where he was so focused on perfecting a commission piece, he practically cut off communication between the two. Lincoln, meanwhile, could only think back to what a few of his coworkers said to him.

"Please don't feed me that crap. I've already got to deal with enough of it from a few jackasses over at the office."

"Are they that bad?"

"No, they're good people. They just don't appreciate graphic t-shirts like I do."

"Didn't you say they've commended your commission work, too?"

"Yeah. Don't ask me why they think the two things are mutually exclusive. So, how about you? What are your plans for the night?"

"A come-down night. I plan on watching Netflix for a bit before crashing."

"Quite the exciting night ahead of you."

"Hey, I don't have a hobby that also counts as a time-waster like you do."

He acted like he was injured. "Ouch."

"Sorry. That was mean."

"I feel like I need an ice pack after hearing that."

"Listen, I said I was sorry, but really, if you can't handle some shade, then we shouldn't be dating to begin with."

"Please. You have nothing on some of the sheer crap I had to endure during high school. Trust me when I say 'What happens at the lunch table stays at the lunch table.'"

"You honestly think I can't hurl better insults at you than your friends could in high school?"

"You were never a hormonal teenage boy, so I'm going to go with a solid 'no' on that."

"Well screw you, too, honey." They both had to chuckle at how that conversation panned out.

"Alright, mind if I let you go? I want to get this thing finished while the juices are still going strong."

"Yeah. No problem. I still need to eat anyway. It's leftover pasta night!"

"Hey, just like what I had for dinner tonight."

"You had pasta, too?"

"Yep."

"How did we go so long without dating?"

"I'd have to say it was a combination of other interests at the time and a really awkward middle school and high school phase where no one knew how to properly handle puberty."

"Yeah, I'd say that sounds about right."

"Alright, babe. We'll talk tomorrow. We still good for Saturday?"

"Like always."

"Cool, then I'll talk to you later."

"Okay. Love you."

"Love you, too." They leaned in and kissed the part of the screen where each other's lips were positioned.

"Bye."

"Bye."

And with that, Lincoln spent the rest of the night perfecting his drawing. Most of the night wasn't even spent on drawing, it was checking and rechecking it over and over again. He flipped the screen more times for this one drawing, a simple white on black drawing, mind you, so not even close to some of his more demanding works, than he did with any other picture before. Every time he did, it almost always ended with a single line being shortened or outright deleted and redone. Even he couldn't believe how much effort was being put into this design, but when it's a design going on a shirt, it should be a design he wants to wear. And it was with that mindset that he finally completed it around 10:14, right around his typical bedtime, and the results spoke for themselves.

* * *

"Holy crap, dude! That looks great!"

"That's what I like to hear. Any of you who said this was a waste of time can now, officially, shut up!" If he wasn't on the clock right now, he would've added a few swear words in there. He came in wearing the shirt with his graphic on it. It came out absolutely perfect and he fell in love with the thing the moment he took it out of the packaging. Seems like everyone else agreed, too.

Of course, this being your typical office environment, he had to wear business-centric clothes, so he basically pulled a Clark Kent and opened his shirt up to reveal the design to everyone. That's why, when lunch came around, he took his top shirt off completely to show everyone what his shirt fully looked like. Everyone had one question on their mind when they saw it that someone was inevitably going to ask. "Where can I get one?"

"Sorry, but this is a one-off."

"Aww, come on, Lincoln. Can't you convince whoever printed that to sell it?"

"Yeah. I'd totally buy one if it was."

"Sorry, guys, but I don't think they're going to pick it up that easily."

"Then why not try selling it yourself?"

"How? I'm not exactly Nike. I don't have the resources to sell these things en masse."

"No, but a site like t-springs would. You could just upload the design there and you could earn yourself a few extra bucks." Now there was an idea. Lincoln actually could sell it, but he would need to decide which website he wanted to sell it on. T-springs was one of those sites.

"I've heard of that place but never used it. Do you know how much I could get?"

"I think they start at five, but depending on the size ordered, you could receive anywhere from five to seven."

That could really help Lincoln with some personal expenses. Combine that money with the money he got doing commissions and he could cut down on a few loans and expenses that were hanging around. He had a market in that his coworkers wanted to buy, and the commission rate for each shirt sounded reasonable, so Lincoln decided he would go ahead and do it.

"Alright then. I'll send an email out to you guys when I've uploaded it." This got him a few subdued cheers from his colleagues.

When work ended, he made his way back home, created an account on the website, and uploaded his picture to be printed on the shirts the site sold. The next thing he did was send an email around to his coworkers saying he uploaded it and that they can now buy the shirt, too. Considering the good word his friend Nick put in for the site, he trusted that the finished product would turn out exactly like the shirt he was wearing right now.

Originally, he didn't think much of this. It was just a way to earn some cash on the side from some people who thought the shirt looked cool. Then he saw his email get spammed with order confirmations. After a couple hours of this happening, he opened his account page to see how many orders he got. On the first day alone, he netted around a hundred orders totaling $438, much more than he expected. But okay, this was just a temporary thing. All his coworkers saw the email, and everyone who wanted one got one. He didn't expect that many, but he did expect the traffic. He expected this to die down.

The day after, it turns out that the design was so popular with the office that they spread news of the shirt around to different people in their lives. This was evident by the fact that more emails were popping up telling him that he was getting more orders for his shirt. More and more days passed with traffic only remaining stagnant at worst, and the orders just kept coming. He was very curious about the hits the page, itself, was getting, so to check it, he called up someone he knew could help him track it.

"_Lisa Loud speaking."_

"Hey Lise."

"_Ah, greetings, Lincoln. What do I owe the pleasure?"_

"You still have some hacking skills, right?"

"…_Are you asking if I'm able to break into the Pentagon?"_

"Am I correct to assume that you've already tried?" Silence.

_"…I…plead the fifth."_

After a chuckle, he said "No, that's not why I'm asking. There's a webpage that I want to see the traffic for, and I need your help with that."

"_Well, I have been a little preoccupied as of late with my medical studies, but I think I still got some coding magic lying around. __Just give me a few moments to whip something up." _Some dead air followed as he heard some keys typing in the background. After a couple seconds, she asked _"So what's the big deal about the webpage you want to track?"_

"I uploaded a design on it and got my indox spammed with confirmation emails about people ordering the shirt. I want to know just how many hits my design is actually getting."

"_Understood. …And, she's up and running. I'll send it to you immediately. Just copy the site's URL into the box at the top."_

"Thanks, Lise." He pulled up a different email (one that wasn't completely congested), clicked the one sent by Lisa, and opened the sucker up.

The good news about the application was that it could be easily downloaded by simply clicking on two boxes. She was even nice enough to code in the ability for him to track new websites if he so desired with it. Right now, that wasn't the main focus. What was the focus was the current traffic numbers, and boy, did he like what he was seeing. He was able to see that the page itself had already generated over a thousand views in the span of a day. While he still wasn't sold that this was a success that was meant to last, he was still going to track the amounts of hits he was getting. This would be something he would do for the next couple weeks.

The traffic only went up, as did the order numbers. He was getting several thousand hits per day, with sales being in the several hundreds to, sometimes, thousands. He trusted that they were coming out properly the moment he saw one of his coworkers wearing it one day, so he was happy they were delivering on quality. Honestly, though, it was just a dumb design idea he thought up. He wouldn't have expected for this shirt to sell so well that he managed to net several thousand orders from the shirt in only a couple weeks. Again, the traffic was never worse than stagnant at a few hundred hits, but not a day passed where he wasn't getting a lot of orders in. He was absolutely loving it, being able to see that people were buying his art and that more people were, at least, viewing it, giving it more exposure. At some point, someone he was close to from home (sans Lisa) would come across this. He just knew.

* * *

"Mom! Mom!"

"Richie?"

"Mom, I found an awesome shirt I want on this website. Can you buy it for me?"

"Hang on, Kiddo. You know how this works. Show me the shirt first." Lori was a protective mother that didn't want her kids buying anything without her first seeing it to make sure it was okay for them to wear.

The young six-year-old practically dragged his mother to the computer to show her the shirt. It was a harmless design, a ninja-looking person on top of a building. The swords were stashed away on his back (though one hand was grabbing the handle of one of them, but Lori could forgive the artist for that) so nothing bad was shown. She could fully understand why Richie would want this, so she decided to go ahead and buy it. However, before she added the item to the cart, she began to inspect it more thoroughly. Why did this art style seem so familiar to her?

Her focus now was to look at who made the design. It was an alias, but the name itself said everything. LoudLabelz. All she had to do was put two and two together to figure out who the creator was.

"I'll be damned…"

"Mom?"

Oh right. Her kid was right next to her. She immediately slammed her hand to her mouth before turning to him. "You didn't hear me say that, alright? Promise not to use that word or phrase and I'll literally buy you two shirts."

"Okay!" Like all kids, bribery did a lot to keep his mouth shut from saying anything like that to his father. Bobby didn't like swearing.

She turned back to the screen and actually did try to place the order, but as she clicked Add to Cart, nothing happened. She tried again but nothing happened. She immediately refreshed the page. Shock came over her as she read the message on screen.

_Due to a high number of traffic, this page is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later._

* * *

The traffic stopped. Spamming F5 did nothing but show a screen that was pretty much black. Lisa, who was also watching from her own monitor at her residence in Baltimore (watching the traffic for the page had become a bit of sibling bonding time for the two since she created the software for him, so she started to regularly Skype him), couldn't get it to respond either. The two of them had a pretty good idea of why this happened. Call it a hunch.

"Lisa, do you think-"

"_No other reason. How many emails do you have?"_

Lincoln pulled out his phone to check and simply responded with "Too many for me to want to go through all of them." The way he said it confirmed everything.

"_Remind me to ask for your assistance when I need a logo for any future organization I may create."_

Lincoln simply put his hands on the back of his neck and sighed.

It started out as a design for a shirt Lincoln only thought _he_ would wear. What it turned into was a shirt that was popular enough for a site's network to crash.

It wasn't the biggest site in the world, and it was fairly new, only a year old, so both siblings assumed that they didn't have the best infrastructure put in place. And given the quality of many of the designs, they didn't exactly have the most exciting offering out there. They'd be lucky if they netted ten thousand visits in a day and it could be assumed that the average amount of sales each day was around three thousand. At best, they were probably using only a couple switches. Well, if the site was looking to expand, they now had a pretty good reason to.

Lincoln then got a phone call and saw that it was from Lori. "Hello?"

"_Lincoln, that shirt was yours, right?"_

He bolted up. "Wait, how do you know?"

"_Richie wanted me to buy it for him."_

Something immediately crossed his mind. "…You're still living in Minneapolis, right?"

On her end, she made a facial expression that said 'Where else would I be?' _"Uh…Yeah."_

Another thought ran through his head. _Holy crap. Did word spread._

"_Anyway, were you aware that your shirt just caused the site to crash?"_

"Yeah, I'm looking at the page right now. So's Lisa." He put his phone on speaker.

"_Greetings, eldest sibling, and yes, the site's down. I even checked the homepage and it's out, too."_

"Wait, the homepage is down, too?" Lincoln asked.

"_Indeed. I feel I should congratulate you, Lincoln. Not only did you manage to crash a website due to the popularity of your product, but also getting the most hits for a product on this site's history."_

"Shit. I didn't even check." He immediately looked to the small box that gave the hit total. On this night alone, he attracted 18,585 hits, of which 10,322 were firm orders, earning himself $54,584, about the same as his annual salary. The site spiked at around eight thousand concurrent users, which caused the crash. He simply leaned back down into his chair, closed his eyes, and laughed. Completely by accident, he created a fad shirt that made him more in one night than he made annually at his job.

But where Lincoln saw accident, Lori was beginning to see opportunity. If the public likes a product, then it isn't an accident. It can be surprising, but it's not an accident, and Lincoln brought an entire website to its knees because the public loved what he made. Sure, it was a fairly small company that had a poor network in place to handle the traffic, but he still brought it down. That meant the public wanted it, and if she (and by extension, the company itself) went about managing this the right way, this could have some serious growth potential. She decided to stew on this idea for a couple days to try and think about how she could turn this into a legitimate, sustainable business.

"_Well, like Lisa said, congratulations Linc, and I'll be talking to you soon."_

Still running on a high, he responded "Alright. See ya, Lori."

"_Bye Linc. Bye Lise."_

"_So long." _

Lori had always wanted to run her own company, and her current position as a junior executive was doing wonders at teaching her what it means to be in charge of a company, despite not actually managing the one she was at. She knew she needed three things: a product the public wanted to buy, enough capital to get the business up and running, and the right people behind her. All of her siblings came to mind and could fit different roles either immediately or when called upon. This would be a family effort, she knew, but she needed to run the idea by three people first. She needed her idea to be heard by Lincoln (the man who created the precursor product, was the catalyst for the idea, and would lead the design efforts), Lisa (who would be instrumental in helping organize the capital and assets to create and sustain the company), and one other person.

* * *

Lola was currently in the dance studio, practicing a routine she was going to be tested on by the coach of her dance team next week. A famously hard worker, Lola had spent every moment since she got out of her classes for the day trying to perfect it, or at least, not make the mistakes obvious. She was working up an insane sweat that would've challenged Lynn during her exercises. She was that focused on nailing this performance. She had to if she wanted to travel with them for an upcoming competition. She did not want to be backup.

She eventually had to take breaks, though, since the human body could only take so much. Like most girls her age, the focus when she sat down on the bench was first, her water, and second, her phone. She had a video of the dance open that she was using to help guide her, and while that was the first thing she had her focus on, the text notification was what immediately got her attention, especially when she saw that it was from Lori.

_Hey Lols. Listen, I know this is sudden, but I want you to make a trip home this weekend. I have an idea I want to run by you._

She had to respond with the obvious. _Why can't you just tell me over the phone or a Skype call?_

_Because I'm going to run it by you and a few others first, and after that, the rest of the family. Please Lola. I think we have the potential for something big here._

Lola was very intrigued by that last sentence. By that token alone, she responded with _Okay. Fine._

* * *

**If it sounds unrealistic for someone to find success because a t-shirt design, I can only respond with this. Remember when fidget-spinners were a thing?**

**So yes, the actual story has now begun. Lincoln found success with a t-shirt design, Lori thinks she has a product that's worth selling, and now, she just needs to pitch the idea to her siblings now. If your wondering why I chose Lola as the third sibling, it'll be fully explained next chapter, but if you've seen Room with a Feud, that epsiode should give you some insight.**

**Finally, I want to make something clear about this story in that I am not going to cover the entirety of the family's business ventures. Successful companies are very complex and enduring things that would take years upon years to craft a compelling story about. Often, successful businesses outlive their founders. Ford, for example, has a fourth-generation family member as Executive Chairman, the founder's great-grandson. So yeah, there is no way I could cover something like that in a relatively short amount of time. This story will only focus on the early days of their business attempts, which is usually when the pressure to succeed and drama are at their highest, since everyone is determined to not let the company collapse and they start to taste what it's like to be successful.**


	3. Plan of Attack

**Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for the pitch. The business plans are outlined and the siblings find out their ownership stakes. Apologies if this chapter comes across as hard to read. I kind of went all in on Lori's dialogue in this chapter as she goes full executive explaining everything (but that's what made it some much fun. I had a blast writing it). Hope everyone enjoys.**

**Also, I decided to change a few things around in the first chapter. Nothing drastic like their net worths, occupations, or anything that would directly impact the main story I have planned, instead a few insignificant things (for this story) pertaining to a few sisters that, in the grand scheme of things, wouldn't make too much of a difference. Sorry for the change, but after thinking through some things, I thought it would make more sense to change a couple things around.**

**Disclaimer: The Loud House and characters belong to Nickelodeon.**

**Edit: To answer one of the questions I got in the reviews, the reasons for Lana and Lucy not having pictures is that they're simply more private and not in the spotlight as much as their fellow siblings are.**

* * *

"Thanks again for letting us use your place, Luna."

"_No problem, dude. Do you still expect to meet up next week?"_

"It all depends on how things go now. I have a feeling they're all going to be on board, but I can't make any promises at the moment."

"_For now, I'll assume we are. If that changes, call me back."_

"I will."

"_Alright, I'll talk to you dudes later."_

"Alright, Luna. Bye."

"_See ya, sis."_

Lori hung up and made her way to the study in Luna's Grosse Pointe residence. It was a really nice house, worth a solid $1.15 million dollars, which for Luna, actually wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things. Her ambitions as a rocker took off around the time she was ready to graduate high school. A decade of passion and hard work later, she was now an internationally known rocker who was the lead guitarist and vocalist of a band with fellow guitarist Sam and a couple friends from high school, a band that had multiple multiplatinum album sales and endorsement deals with several different companies. Her net worth was well within seven digits, easily making her the most successful Loud sibling at that point in time, with Luan coming in second and Lynn taking the bronze (just like her Olympic results).

For someone who had a career doing something that so many people associated with messiness, Luna sure kept her house clean. It was a four bed, six bath in one of the richer neighborhoods that were close to Detroit. Much of the house seemed to have been untouched by Luna (though there was a noticeable lack of dust), seeing as she only ever really used the kitchen, bathroom, main bedroom, living room, and one of the spare rooms she converted into a home studio.

The siblings were currently in the study, presumably used by Luna when she was looking to find inspiration for some new music by just binge-listening to a bunch of music and came in here for its rather calm atmosphere. Lisa brought with her some computerized glass that she arranged into a board big enough for everyone to see, which they would use to help plan everything.

"Okay. I just got off the phone with Luna and she said to not do anything she wouldn't do and that we're welcome to stay the night if we need to."

"She gave us permission to break her stuff?"

Lori wanted to respond to that seriously, but she couldn't tell if Lincoln actually meant it or if he was making a joke at Luna's tendency to break things in the heat of the moment, especially after an awesome performance. She decided to exercise her status as the oldest sibling in the room (even though three out of the four of them were adults) and simply said "No." The exchange did get a small laugh out of Lola.

"Lisa, is the board up and running yet?"

"For the last few minutes."

"Okay, guys. I've gathered you all here to run an idea past everyone. Lincoln, your shirt design was unbelievably successful. Do you have any idea why?"

"Because…people liked it?" He really didn't have a better answer for her.

"Well, duh. But I think there's more to it than that. What feedback did you get when you talked to some of the people who bought your shirt?"

"All they really said was that they liked the design. I'm honestly prepared to say that this was more of an accident than anything else."

"You never told me you made a shirt design."

"I made it a few weeks ago. Been selling it since."

"Sorry, Lola. We should've told you sooner. Yes, Lincoln made a design for a t-shirt and it ended up being a runaway success."

"How much of one?"

Lincoln answered "Enough to crash the site I was selling it on."

Her eyes went wide "And how much did you make off of it?"

"Total or the night of the crash?"

"Total."

He smacked his tongue against his lips and answered "Five hundred and forty-eight thousand and counting." Lola simply looked at him with her eyes wide, let in a slow, deep breath, turned her head slowly, and mouthed "Holy shit."

"Exactly, Lola. Lincoln, you can call it an accident all you want but a product doesn't sell well by accident. Consumers don't buy t-shirts when they meant to buy a lawnmower or some light bulbs. You created something big, something people looked at and decided it was worth buying."

"I took the liberty of pooling the ip addresses of everyone who visited the site and bought one of your shirts. After running some backgrounds on the owners of such addresses, I've come to the conclusion that most of the buyers were male and within the age range of 6-28."

Lori spoke again. "Lincoln, what do you think happened that could've gotten so many people to recognize your shirt?"

"Well, my coworkers said they wanted one after I showed them the one I got. I said 'okay', uploaded the design to the website and emailed them that it was up. From there, word simply spread."

"It got visibility is what you're saying."

"In a way, I guess I am."

"Lisa, did you happen to check the traffic for the rest of the site as a whole and see what the next most popular designs were?"

"I did. The hits came nowhere close to Lincoln's."

"Here's what I'm getting at, guys. It wasn't just that Lincoln created an awesome looking design for a t-shirt, it's that he was able to do that and make it seen. I think it's fair to say that we know at least a few people who own graphic t-shirts. My two kids both own at least a couple of them. However, it can be hard to find ones you like. Here's what I discovered when I went on to this website." She walked over to the board and pulled up a tab with the website on it. "It's cluttered. Yeah, it has variety, but each design gets lost in the shuffle. You don't really have time to take a quick look at what every page has. It's why these websites have never really exploded past a few million in revenue a year. Customers want convenience. They don't want to have to look through pages upon pages of designs that they don't care about to find one that they do. They want to get in and get out."

"So basically, what you're suggesting is a smaller marketplace for these shirts where it's easier to find a design you like."

Lori smirked. "You catch on fast, Lola. But it goes farther than that. What I have in mind is a small marketplace with _quality _to back it up. Your shirt wasn't only visible to others, it was also well-made. Not only do people not want to waste time looking for that one design they like more than all the rest, they don't want to waste their time on a marketplace that's full of absolute junk." Her point was illustrated by some incredibly stupid and weird designs shown. Why anyone would pay for shirts like that was beyond them.

"And that's what I'm thinking: a small, easy-to-navigate marketplace and a quality physical product. We wouldn't offer too many products, just enough that the end-user can get in, pick one or two shirts they like more than the rest, pay, and leave."

"And how can we guarantee that the end-users will actually like what they see?"

"Because I know you, Lincoln. I know that you never cheap out on any of your art. From the moment you found out you could draw, I haven't seen one picture from you that could qualify as lazy, mediocre, half-finished, or anything of that nature. You're carful, you're precise…and you draw the designs that people would love to wear on their clothes."

As much as Lincoln loved being talked up, he felt she was exaggerating a bit. It was just one shirt design. He essentially created a fad. There was no way hanging onto that same model would work in the long-haul. One of the major rules of business is that if you don't adapt to how the world is changing around you, then you are doomed to fail. Yes, there was a market, but how long would that market be there?

…Then again, he had little hope of the shirt actually succeeding to begin with, and now here he was, halfway to becoming a millionaire off of it without a full month passing by. Lori was right. There was a market out there that was willing to buy the shirts he designed, and the business she proposed sounded great. He knew all too well what it was like to visit a site like t-springs and be unable to find a single design that was worth buying more than all the rest, and the shirts on the site were never that attractive to begin with. This actually did have potential, a lot of potential if they played their cards right.

"Lincoln, you single-handedly proved that there can be a lot of success to be had here. This concept wouldn't even exist without you, and if we want this company to succeed, then we need you to be the one to lead the designing efforts."

Before he agreed, he needed to ask one thing. "What would my share of the company be?"

"I've come up with some numbers, but we can talk about what we actually think is fair. Lincoln, you and I will each take twenty percent total ownership, twenty for me for creating the concept and running the company and twenty for you for being the one that actually designs the products. Lisa and Lola, you'll each get fifteen percent. Lisa will be the CFO and in charge of monetary and server operations, and Lola will be Executive Vice President, working with me to help run and grow the company. The rest of the shares can be split with the rest of our sisters depending on the roles we decide to give them."

Lisa liked the offer. "I see these terms as reasonable and I, too, see the potential profitability in this endeavor. Not only would allow for a decent short-term chance at net gains, but it would also allow for us to expand into creating other sorts of novelties if we so desire."

"Alright, you two. This company won't happen unless the two of you say 'yes'."

It was obvious why these two needed to be there for the company to exist. Lincoln needed to be there because it was his picture design that took off. He drew what the people wanted, people bought it, and without his skills, this new company would go nowhere, and it wouldn't without Lola either.

While she was only a year into being an adult, her history showed great potential that could be unleashed on the business realm. Her time in middle school and high school was defined by her presence on both student councils, as well as on the board for her schools National Honors Society. From being a six-year-old that could barely read, with Lincoln's help, her academic success shot through the roof, as too did her leadership skills. She was extremely productive and always came through with good results. It's the very reason why people always wanted to partner with her for group projects and why she was elected president of the NHS. This was on top of her leading the school's dance troop.

All of this helped her to get accepted into a variety of different colleges, including a couple Ivy League ones. She would've loved to attend Columbia, but in typical Ivy League fashion, their selectiveness meant being even more selective at giving out financial aid, and Lola was still going to have to foot most of the bill for tuition costs, and her family didn't feel like taking out loans to pay for almost $200,000 to cover that. Deciding to keep things more cost effective on a fully paid tuition, Lola instead chose Butler University. No, she wasn't there when Jordan still was. Jordan graduated two years prior. She declared economics as her major while finding a spot on the Bulldog's dance team, her interest in studying economics stemming from her times with the different clubs in k-12 and the need for them to operate on a strict budget, as well as when she was occasionally put in charge of financials and structuring a sound plan for the future.

Neither Lola nor Lincoln were people whose academic skills could be sneered at. No, they weren't Lisa, the youngest person to ever graduate from Oxford and currently working at John Hopkins Hospital, one of the premier research hospitals in the world. People could laugh at Lincoln for majoring in Communication Design, but he was still at the top of his class, both in high school and college, easily graduating with honors. Lola only had one semester behind her, but she still made the Dean's List. It didn't matter that they weren't at Lisa's level. She would stick up for the two of them and their intelligence if someone ever tried to throw shade at them, and was also with Lori in that running the proposed company without these two would make the challenge that much greater. The needed Lincoln's design skills and they needed Lola for the executive support.

Both Lincoln and Lola looked at each other. "What do you think?"

"I think you lucked out with that design…but I have to agree with you two." She turned to face them. "While I'm not entirely sold on just t-shirt designs, I like what this company could become. My only request is that we have more of a product offering than shirts."

"I do, too. That's why I was thinking of also offering things like jackets and sweatshirts at launch, too."

"We shouldn't offer too many products at the beginning, dear sister. We either need to have a small offering at launch, or we'll need to do a partnership with another business."

"I actually like that idea. There are some great local apparel companies in different cities. If we partner with one of them to sell not just shirts, but a few other products like Lola said, we could probably make a few more bucks out of the gate and we would be spared having to spend extra money on buying things like printers."

"Lincoln has a point. We aren't exactly starting with a lot of capital or assets. We should take things slow and not assume too much risk right away for a product that Lincoln and I aren't sure of just yet."

All three of Lori's siblings made good points. There are many things that can lead to a startup failing, such as being overly ambitious, not being smart with financials, and taking on too much risk with an unproven product. Setting everything up is always the hardest part for a business because that is where all of the money goes at the beginning and it's what can lead to possible expansion in the future. Poor execution at this phase would mean that the company has little chance to recover, and while a few of their siblings had a decent amount of wealth, everyone highly doubted that any of them were willing to take on such risk.

Lincoln spoke up. "But to tell you what I think…I like it. Lola?"

"I do, too."

And with a smile, they both said in unison "We're in."

The siblings that were key to the business even getting off the ground were officially on board. Now they just needed to iron everything out with the rest of the sisters.

* * *

The meeting with the rest of the family wouldn't happen until the next weekend, so during the next week, the siblings who knew about the project were focusing on doing what they could in preparation for the company's creation (when they weren't preoccupied with things like work and school). Lincoln focused his efforts on designing new images that were in a similar vein to the original drawing he made. He managed to create two by the time the next weekend came around and he had to make the trip back out to Detroit from Chicago. He really wasn't too excited to be making the four and a half hour drive, as well as having to cancel on Jordan for two weekends in a row, but he didn't want to pony up two hundred (plus fees) in flight expenses and Jordan was fine with it when he explained why he was making the trips. Plus, he could always make those hours more bearable by just bringing up a playlist and listening to some music he liked. Heck, when there was a nice sunset during the drive, he could call it therapeutic.

The three sisters, meanwhile, were in constant communication with each other during the week, discussing things like corporate philosophies, the allocation of finances, different partnership opportunities and pitches, and most importantly, how the company will be funded. Because of the money Lincoln made from his first design, he was willing to give up to $150,000, but he wasn't about to give all of that money up right away. He would start by giving $10,000 immediately to be used for the necessary equipment to get the website up and running, as well as the site's infrastructure to be able to handle the prospective traffic numbers. The sisters were very appreciative of him for that. One of the things they knew they wanted to do immediately was take out as few loans as possible with the least amount of money. They didn't want to be settled with the burden of paying a lot of money off while, simultaneously, focused on keeping the company financially healthy, especially if the company was to experience slow growth and the lenders started calling in debts when they didn't have enough money to do it. For Lisa, what Lincoln offered was more than enough for her to work with, as she already had a plan of attack for the website, but even she couldn't predict how well the company would do simply because it is nearly impossible to predict what the public at large will deem good enough to buy. She didn't doubt Lincoln's skill, she doubted if the public would buy Lincoln's designs enough or if they would've moved on to something else. Fads exist because they become popular for a certain amount of time and then ultimately forgotten about. It was why Lola didn't want to just stick with selling a few graphic shirts and hope for the best.

So, while Lincoln's funding would be plenty to get the website going, the siblings still weren't averse to the risk involved with this, and with that came a thought. There was only one sister they felt had enough money to her name to make this as safe for everyone as possible: Luna. She already had millions to her name and wasn't the type of person to spend her wealth on five sports cars, three executive cars, a big mansion, and what was left on bribing groupies and models to sleep with her. Sure, the house she lived in cost a little over a million, but that was the most expensive purchase she ever made. Her car was just your average Accord, and while no one really knew too much about her love life, she seemed much more focused on her career as a musician than she did having sex. She seemed like she was being fairly smart with her money, and her fortune was only going to grow. That meant something important to the sisters: she could take on the most risk without it hurting her too much. They just needed to convince her to that.

During the week, everything could only be discussed for so much time each night. Again, work and school obligations, and for Lola, dance team was a thing, too. Because of this, the sisters agreed on a set timestamp each night to hold their talks about building the company, from eight to ten, with Lola being allowed to duck out in case she had a lot of homework. While she was doing good at not letting these business talks affect her studies, her mind was mainly focused on the company's potential. Lola had always wanted to make a name for herself and building a successful company could do just that for her. While going into business with her siblings had risk, as well as her not being too keen on the idea of running a business where product management was out of her control (nothing against Lincoln, but she liked having autonomy over what was being sold), she knew what the payoff could be, and it's what made the prospect so appealing.

The task of organizing the rest of the family together came together easier than expected. Some of the sisters were still living in the Detroit metropolitan, some even in Royal Woods still, such as Lana, Leni, and Lucy (she was attending college at the University of Detroit Mercy), while the others could easily make the weekend trip back home. However, it was made clear that this was not a family get-together. This was to discuss the potential idea the original four had (that's actually what they said to the sisters who didn't know).

When Friday came around, everyone either made the car ride or plane ride back to Detroit. They would have the rest of the night to themselves before they all met up again tomorrow to discuss what Lori and the others had in mind. At least they were blessed with a nice evening to travel on, and for Lincoln, that meant a nice, peaceful drive home filled with music.

* * *

In a tribute to the good old days, the siblings held their meeting in Lori and Leni's old room at everyone's childhood home, a home that most of the siblings rarely visited anymore because of branching out to other regions of the country and becoming full-time employees. Even holidays were no longer spent there since Luna bought her place the year prior, which became the new gathering spot for the family when everyone was in town. For everyone still in college, though, it still counted as home, even though Lucy and Lola lived in an off-campus apartment and dorm, respectively. Lily was still in high school, so she really didn't have much of a choice. While it was nice to see everyone again in their old home, Lori and Lola wanted this meeting to start as soon as possible, though Lola forgot about that for a bit when she saw Lana again and the two of them couldn't calm down at all at being reunited. The twin connection really was something special.

Lisa brought in the same computerized glass used in the last meeting, set it all up, and the meeting was underway. First, everyone found out that Lincoln made a successful t-shirt design, one that crashed an entire website, earning him praise from his sisters. Lynn was the one to ask the next big question. "So, how much have you made on it?"

"Last I checked, five hundred and fifty-three thousand." That shut everybody up. Many of the sisters were more successful in life than he was but none of them had ever been overnight sensations. Lincoln had experienced the most success in the quickest amount of time.

From there, Lori, Lola, and Lisa all explained the company's concept and core ideals, a clean and simple marketplace offering a few, quality designs to chose from. They had come up with the idea of selling things like dog collars and printed glasses as well so they didn't have to trust the whole company's future to shirts and jackets. The main selling point would be the designs, with efforts headed by Lincoln. Lori and Lola were the top two executives while Lisa acted as CFO and IT specialist. They would start out partnering with an already established printing organization to avoid the expenses of buying or building their own. The goal of the company was to sell enough of the original products to be able to expand with new and branching product ideas (Lola was dead set on growing the company to the point that they could establish a subsidiary specializing in luxury accessories and apparel). The three sisters and Lincoln seemed like they had crafted a well-thought out business model. Lucy did have a question, though.

"So, what would our roles be?"

"I was actually about to get to that. Leni, you're good with keeping up with trends, so we would task you with coming up with new product ideas and giving Lincoln any input on what people are buying nowadays. Luna, you have good coding skills, so we'll pair you up with Lisa to create and set up the website. Luan and Lucy, you'll be with Lincoln in coming up with new designs. No. Bad. Puns, Luan. Go with jokes that you know people would appreciate."

"First off, ouch. Second, I already have a line of merchandise I'm selling. Would it help if I moved all of that over to this website?"

"Not at the beginning. Remember, we're a completely new company. We shouldn't bite off any more than we can chew. A few designs to start, and the company's growth will dictate expansion." Luan nodded.

"Lynn, Lana, you two will be the outreach team. All we want you guys to do is get the company recognized through social media. Lynn can use her status as a former Olympic athlete to help while Lana can use her connections to Bobbie Fletcher…she is on social media, right?"

"Rarely, and I don't know how willing her sponsors would be at allowing her to promote us."

"Are any of her sponsors clothing or design companies?"

"No."

"Then it really shouldn't be a problem. If necessary, we'll send her a free shirt and tell her that all we want is a shout-out from her. Look, we need all the publicity we can get when the site officially launches, and with no advertising budget, our next best option is to use our statuses and connections to do that for us. Luna and Luan, you can help with this, too."

"Can we hold off on a full-scale advertising assault at the beginning? I won't know how many users the site will be able to handle until I actually set the network up, and we can't afford to have the site crash on us on the first day of operations."

"Lisa's right." Lincoln spoke up. "After the physical product, the website is the next thing people will judge us on, and we can't afford to have that go down on us. I think it actually would be better for the site to start out slow."

"I'm with them." Lola said. "People are fickle, after all." Despite being the one who wanted the company to grow the most, she knew that people actually had to trust the company first.

"Fair enough, but Lisa, I want you to keep me updated on the traffic numbers and tell me when we are good to increase our presence."

"Shouldn't be a problem."

"Good. Lily? While we would love to have you work with us, we think it's better for you to complete high school first."

"Oh, come on. Are you telling me I can't have any part in helping this company out?'

"You're a high schooler, and trust me when I say that while it may suck now, graduating high school is one of the absolute best things you can do for yourself and your future. Now with that said, high school boys were one of the major buyers of Lincoln's original shirt, so maybe you can do something to get them to notice the site's existence."

"_That,_ I can do."

"Good. Now as far as ownership goes, Lincoln and I have agreed to own twenty percent each, Lincoln being the reason for the company's existence and me being the top executive. Lisa and Lola each get fifteen, Lola helping me with executive duties while Lisa's CFO and in charge of the website's network. As far as everyone else is concerned, we have two ideas on that. One is that everyone is given an ownership stake based on how much work they do. The other option is to split the shares up evenly six ways and give all of you five percent each. Lily, while we think you are too young, Lincoln and I have agreed to compensate you through our own ownership stakes. After you graduate high school, both of us are prepared to transfer some of our shares to you."

And that was it. Everything that the siblings needed to know about the company was told to them. All they had to do was say whether or not they liked what the first four came up with. Lori finally asked the biggest questions she may have ever asked. "Well guys, what do you think? Are you in?"

The sisters loved it. The plan was there, the product was there, and the people were there. It was going to be built on a sound strategy where the consumer would easily be able to find quality, even if it was just a graphic t-shirt or a novelty shot glass. It may have to start out small, but the potential for this company would be grand if they played their cards right, and with Lori, Lola, and Lisa managing everything while Lincoln delivered in making designs people wanted to buy, everyone knew this company was in good hands. It was official; the siblings would be starting a business together.

After that, it was time for another big question to be asked. On the board, Lisa showed the two options to everyone for how the shares would be split. "So, what'll it be, dear siblings? Merit-based ownership of shares or evenly dispersed among you?"

None of them could argue the share amounts that Lincoln, Lori, Lisa, and Lola took for themselves. After all, without the four of them, the rest of the siblings wouldn't know the first thing in running a successful business. Granted, Lincoln wasn't exactly a business-savvy person either (he dedicated some time over the week to learn about economic terms, and it was only then that he learned what the word 'equity' meant), but he, at least, was smart enough to know how to craft a desirable product and the he should surround himself with. He was smart and if he ever wanted to start a business on his own, he would still know the type of people to hire, what to look for, who to trust, and other important things.

With seventy percent of all shares off the table, the final thirty was set to be given based on merit or based on equal measure, and really, the sisters didn't need to think too hard about this. While merit-based share ownership sounded good on paper, the problem with asking them now, before the company was even officially founded, was that none of the sisters actually knew how much work they would put in. They would like to think they were going to do a lot to build the company up, but believing and doing are two very different things at the end of the day. They all agreed that it would be best to do an even split.

After the six sisters who were going to receive shares finished discussing, Luna was the one who said it. "We'll take the even split."

"Five percent for everyone, it is. Alright guys, for a few of you, just hang on while we get everything together and build the website. Lincoln, I want you to discuss with Lucy and Luan the ideas you have for designs. Leni, you can tag along with them and give any advice you think will help them."

"We talk in my old room" said Lincoln.

While most of the siblings filed out of the room (and the sound of Leni saying "Tag! You're it!" was heard), Luna was stopped. "Luna, we need to talk to you about something real fast."

"Okay." Lola closed the door after the other siblings left. "So, what do you dudes need?"

"Luna, you're still wealthy, right?" Lori asked.

"Yeah. Why? You girls in the financial gutter right now?"

"No, no. We're fine…Well, I am." Lori turned to the other two siblings in the room. "You guys are, too, right?"

"I'm good."

"Affirmative."

"No, the reason why we're asking is this. Despite believing we have a solid plan in place, we know that there's always a chance it could fail…and since you are rich, we were hoping-"

"That you would assume most of the risk should this venture fail." Lisa finished, Lori looking over to her and then back to Luna to say "Yeah, what she said."

The best way to describe Luna's reaction was that her attention was caught. She held the same facial expression as she did while Lori was trying to get to the point, but she slowly shifted her body. The three sisters had no idea how she was feeling but Lola, fearing that Luna felt disgusted by this, decided to explain to her what she would get in return.

"We know it doesn't sound attractive, but we're not asking for you to invest any money into the site if you don't want to. Lincoln has already provided us with a lot of money to help get the site going and we're hoping for more people to come in and invest as the company grows."

Lisa chimed in "We've already discussed this with Lincoln and he and Lori are willing to generously give up some of their ownership in the company, as well. You'll own thirty percent, the most out of any of us. In exchange, all we ask is that you-"

"You're asking me to foot the bill in case the biz goes under."

No point in lying. Lola simply responded "Yeah, pretty much."

Luna honestly wasn't sure how to react. How should she react? It wasn't everyday that someone came to her and asked if she was willing to hold her own wealth hostage. They didn't sound like they were doing it because they hated her, though, or because they wanted to avoid facing any repercussions if it did (well, Lola did, but it wasn't the primary reason she was asking). It was entirely because Luna was the most financially secure family member of the bunch.

Lori spoke. "Luna, we promise you won't lose too much money if it does go under, and like Lola said, we're going to shop around, looking for investors to come in and take the heat off of you. We promise that you will still be okay, no matter what happens."

Luna was beginning to feel insulted. First, her sisters wanted to exploit her wealth to make potential bankruptcy easier to stomach, and now, they were flat-out assuming that she cared a heck of a lot more about her fortune than she actually did. She drove an Accord. Not a 911, an Accord, a car known for solid reliability and no-hassle transport instead of ultra-luxury and speed for days. The only thing she did to the car was update the sound system. That was it. She was perfectly content with her fairly modest (by multi-millionaire standards) lifestyle because she didn't need everything to be incredibly luxurious.

"Dudes, why the hell would you think that I care so much about having so much dough to my name? Have you seen the car I drive?"

"What about your house, though?" That was a serious question from Lola.

"It was because I thought it would give us a nice place to hang when the fam's all in town…And I just really wanted a nice pad to live in. I have nothing against this old place, but…once you taste success, you don't want to give it up and go back to where you were."

She wasn't going to admit it, but she felt just that more uncomfortable returning to her childhood home. Sure, it was filled with absolutely wonderful memories, but once she actually started making money and could buy expensive stuff without the chance of ruining her bank account, she started to see how much her life kind of sucked in hindsight. She was part of a loving family that always supported her…but there was no way she wanted to go back to the days of rationing shampoo.

"Luna, you won't lose your wealth. At worst, it wouldn't be any worse than a trip to buy groceries in the grand scheme of things. We're only doing this because you have the capability to. We wouldn't ask if we seriously felt that your financial security would be put on the line. We just don't want to ruin ourselves."

She looked Lori right in the eyes. "If I do this…can you promise me that none of you will do anything stupid while leading the charge?"

The three of them responded in unison "We promise."

"Okay, then."

"Thank you, elder sibling" Lisa said, while Lori and Lola gave Luna simultaneous hugs. Luna was really hoping her sisters knew what they were doing. She trusted them, but there was this fear that their priorities would change once they actually started making money. One of the best decisions their parents made for her was requesting that she speak with a financial advisor when her first big contract was signed, and she credited that with helping her to be smart with her money. It was honestly scary hearing stories about famous people drive themselves into bankruptcy because they didn't know how to restrain themselves from making bad purchases. She didn't want the same thing to happen to her or her family.

…

…

Nowadays, she really doesn't have to worry too much, especially Lincoln, Lori, and Lola, all of whom have enough money to buy their own cruise ships, gut them, and have them redeveloped into their own personal, floating amusement parks.

* * *

**Nothing ends a chapter quite like a financial flex. If I could, I'd have Starboy by The Weeknd playing after that last sentence. A nice little reminder of where they were to where they are.**

**Some of you may be surprised with what I did with Lola, but I think that girl has some serious potential in her future. Her authoritive status got a few gears turning in my head and her character was the product of the brainstorming. If you've ever seen the show Castle, she's kind of like Alexis if she had a greyer moral compass. **

**Finally, for everyone who noticed the contradictory change I made about her university choice from the first chapter (I say her alma mater is Columbia even though, in this chapter, she declined going to Columbia), that's intentional. If things aren't explained in the next chapter, they will in the one after.**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter when the siblings work to get everything set up.**


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